=j(oe) + (l)izz + travel
q. current home/addy where i stayed (neighbourhood) and how long a. tokyo (airbnb in shibuya/harajuku), seoul (airbnb in itaewon) q. favourite meal a. our build-your-own-lunch at the tongin market in seoul. for a mere 5000won (~$6 cad), you get 10 tokens and a bento box which you can fill at the numerous stands that line […]
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Didn’t realize how much pho I have until I was missing it badly after two weeks on the road. I guess I almost have it every week and it’s one of my go to cold rainy soup. I didn’t find any decent ones in China or Sapporo and had to wait until Tokyo to get […]
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the last ramen store we tried was a break from the norm. kikanbo’s calling card is spicy ramen and their bowls have been so popular that they opened up a second shop two doors down solely to specialize in each of the storefronts. one shop only handles soup noodles and their original shop was converted […]
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the last area we explored in tokyo was shimokitazawa aka the hipster factory. i suppose they’re all over the world but the concentration was definitely higher here although more in the mid to late 20 year old range. we both really liked the vibe in shimokitazawa; very chill, friendly and genuine. most of the stores […]
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two months in japan have flown right by and i’m ashamed to say that i’ve picked up very little in the way of communicating in the native tongue. there’s a plethora of gaijin (foreigners) in tokyo and haha and myself are added to the list of them that stand out like a sore thumb. the […]
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ippudo was a recommendation from our tokyo sensei, pablo. he’s the master of all things tokyo and after he gave our group a hands on tour four years ago, if he suggests to eat/walk/jump, we do it. we were coming back from mt takao and it was close to 8pm on a sunday night. that […]
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q. current home/addy where i stayed (neighbourhood) and how long a. tokyo (air bnb in shibuya) for the last week q. favourite meal a. oh man… toss up. it’s either gyokotsu matador’s shoyu beef ramen or afuri’s yuzu tsukemen. i ate them both in that order and from the first bite, i felt like the […]
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we went to our first cat cafe back in sapporo so why not owls right? i don’t know what possessed us to climb the stairs to this cafe but once we got there, curiousity got the better of us and we committed to a half hour visit. we paid our 2000 yen and walked into […]
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Last Sunday, we headed out to Mount Takao to check out the fire walking festival (Hiwatari-sai). We got there just in time to catch the procession of yamabushi monks walking towards the festival grounds. We quickly follow the procession, making sure to follow the locals who seem to know where they are going. We arrive […]
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after trying tokachi ippin’s butadon in sapporo, we had to see how tokyo’s version compared to it. it’s just a bit outside of the core stations of tokyo in ochanomizu. even though we had the address we were walking up and down the street of restaurants for 10 minutes because it has no signage up […]
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our second day in tokyo was a lazy day after all the walking around we did. we woke up late and ate breakfast at home thanks to our (drum roll)… TWO burner stove. yeah we did. seeing as how we skipped both the asahi and sapporo breweries in hokkaido i felt it was only right […]
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Woke up this morning to a cold and rainy day, so we decided to stay in and get caught up with blog posts. Well, Jojo did all the posts while I caught up on Answer Me 1988 episodes. 😛 Hunger eventually forced us to look into dinner options. We found a Chinese restaurant close by […]
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for our first full day in tokyo we decided to check out the pixar exhibit at museum of contemporary art. it was on the east side of the city in koto and it took us about and hour to get there via walking and the metro line. as you come out of the kiyosumi-shirakawa station, […]
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no trip to japan would be complete without gyoza. after walking the streets of harajuku we stopped in at gyoza lou for a small snack to tide us over until dinner. it was mid afternoon the lineup of 20+ people during lunchtime had shrunk to 6 by the time we arrived. for a small dumpling […]
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if there’s one thing we’ve gotten down to a science so far this trip it’s that we’re proactive when it comes time to plan for our stomachs. we were halfway through our drinks at craft beer bar ibrew when the grumbles started. since we had a full day metro pass, we decided to take a […]
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upon our arrival to tokyo we were greeted with good old rain. out of tradition, i like to eat ramen as my first meal so couple that with the wet weather and it was an easy decision to look for a bowl somewhere in our hood. on that same note, this is tokyo and there […]
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q. current home/addy where i stayed (neighbourhood) and how long a. sapporo (same airbnb), tokyo (3 night sairbnb in shinjuku) q. favourite meal a. butayaro. they have one item on the menu, all you have to do is pick your size. quite different from the butadon ippin in sapporo as the sauce was smokier and […]
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